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United States Patent | 5,102,393 |
Sarnoff ,   et al. | April 7, 1992 |
An autoinjector converted from an intramuscular to a subcutaneous mode of injection comprising a housing having a medicament cartridge assembly mounted within the housing means in a storage position for movement out of the storage position and a releasable stressed spring assembly for moving the medicament cartridge assembly means out of the storage position. The stressed spring assembly is operable in response to a manual actuating procedure which does not require compression of the subcutaneous tissue to effect an intramuscular mode of injection by moving the hypodermic needle of the cartridge assembly outwardly of the housing into the muscle tissue at the injection site of a user and a major portion of the liquid medicament of the cartridge assembly outwardly through the hypodermic needle into the muscle tissue of the user. An injection mode converting structure is secured in a subcutaneous mode position for converting the mode of injection effected by the stressed spring assembly from the intramuscular mode of injection to a subcutaneous mode of injection in which the needle cannot extend substantially beyond subcutaneous tissue at the injection site of the user and a major portion of the liquid medicament enters into the subcutaneous tissue.
Inventors: | Sarnoff; Stanley J. (Bethesda, MD); Lopez; Claudio (Gaithersburg, MD) |
Assignee: | Survival Technology, Inc. (Bethesda, MD) |
Appl. No.: | 380451 |
Filed: | July 17, 1989 |
Current U.S. Class: | 604/136; 604/117; 604/134; 604/135 |
Intern'l Class: | A61M 005/20 |
Field of Search: | 604/130,134,136,187,194,197-198,201,218,192,117,220,263,135,137-139,157 |
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Foreign Patent Documents | |||
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0180761 | Jan., 1955 | DE | 604/192. |
American Heritage Dictionary 2nd College Edition Houghton Mifflin Co. 1982, pp. 633 and 1211 (hypodermic Subcutaneous). |